$386 million of that influx of cash was for medicinal marijuana, $313 million was for recreational purposes. ($50 from that $313 million was from me.)

And as The Huffington Post has documented, Colorado is devoting $40 million of their marijuana tax revenue to public school construction.

According to projected numbers from Nerdwallet.com, New York State could earn anywhere from $100 million to $499 million in revenue and sales tax by 2018 if we were to legalize weed.

Maybe if we were making hundreds of millions of dollars in the marijuana market, apples would cost less at Trader Joe’s.

Or maybe... wait for it... our public schools might even improve. What a brilliant idea!

2. The war on drugs would end

[via drleonardcoldwell.com]

And incarceration would decrease so drastically, it’d make our heads spin.

It's already not fair that everyone in low-income neighborhoods get jailed for weed and cocaine while all the kids at Columbia get left alone.

Cato.org reports that legalizing weed would save roughly $41.3 billion a year in government spending. That’s how much the US Government spends every year enforcing drug prohibition.

Lots of people kill each other over drugs. But what if weed was legal? Everyone could relax... maybe just a little?

Think about it... everyone could stop rushing around all the time, and just chill out. Walt Whitman said happiness is “no place but this place, no hour but this hour.”

If every New Yorker was sitting in a weed circle in Union Square, I think we could all agree on the happiness Whitman prescribed.

3. Drug dealers would be out of business

[via tumblr ]

Heard Kanye’s song “Heard ‘Em Say”?

One of the most poignant lyrics from that song is: “Where I’m from the dope boys is the rockstars.” For some, this isn’t just a pithy rap lyric. It’s a day-to-day reality.

For people trapped in the self-fulfilling prophecy of inner city life, selling drugs may be the only reliable way to pay rent, buy groceries, and keep the electricity running in their apartments.

Legalizing marijuana would put thousands of black market drug dealers out of work.

On the flip side, though, thousands of legal jobs would be created by marijuana’s legality. The Huffington Post reports that 7,500 – 10,000 marijuana industry jobs currently exist in Colorado.

Maybe everyone who makes their living illegally selling marijuana would get a job legally selling marijuana? Or maybe they could go do something really productive with their lives, like become a teacher?